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Taiwan Ranked 3rd-Best Investment Spot

Taiwan has moved up a notch to become the world’s third-best investment destination in this year’s rankings by US-based Business Environment Risk Intelligence SA, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Thursday last week.

Taiwan scored 68 points in its overall profit opportunities recommendation rating, a rise from fourth place in an April report, and is now ranked behind only Switzerland and Singapore, the ministry’s Department of Investment Services said.

The company releases a survey on the investment climates and business risks of the world’s 50 major economies in April, August and December every year.

The report gave Taiwan’s overall investment climate a “1B” rating, which means investors can consider making long-term investments in the country’s stock market.

Taiwan emerged as the world’s safest place to invest in terms of foreign exchange and external account risk; the sixth in the world and first in Asia in operations risk; and the 13th worldwide and sixth in Asia in political risk.

Meanwhile, the EU said it “remains committed” to signing a bilateral investment agreement with Taiwan, but must still complete the “preparatory” phase, involving technical work, including information gathering, before it can conduct an impact assessment and start negotiations, European Economic and Trade Office head Madeleine Majorenko said on Friday last week.

Taiwan has expressed its desire to start negotiations with the EU on a treaty to enhance bilateral business and trade for many years, but progress has been slow.

“Everybody understands Taiwan’s wish to move forward. We fully understand it,” Majorenko said in an interview with the Central News Agency, “but we still think a little bit more work can be done and we have internal procedure on our side, which always takes a bit of time.”

Majorenko said that the highest political levels in Brussels are discussing how the EU can take this issue forward, but technical work continues, including learning about each other to prepare for the next step — conducting an impact assessment.

Such an assessment would examine likely effects of a deal on the environment, society, labor and the economy in the EU, she said.

The EU remains the largest investor in Taiwan, with foreign direct investment stocks of 44.67 billion euros (US$51.96 billion), a recent trade office report said

Last year, 43 percent of all inbound investment to Taiwan came from the EU, whereas in the same period, Taiwanese investment in the EU was very low, amounting to only US$220 million, or 1.9 percent of Taiwan’s overseas investment, the report said.

“We are the biggest investor here and we would like to see more Taiwanese investment in Europe,” Majorenko said.